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PC Minor Factions
Being a 'minor' faction does not necessarily mean a group lacks a voice in how the City is run; it just means they have less overall power than the major groups. Paradise City Reclamation & Redevelopment Coalition The RRC has next to no real political power within the confines of the City. Their sole purview, as the name implies, is reclaiming sectors of Telo-Haljr that Paradise City does not control. Functionally, this makes them something of a cross between a construction company and a security firm- their personnel are mostly engineers, foremen, laborers, electricians, plumbers, and similar professions, protected by small groups of private security contractors whose existence is relegated almost entirely to defensive measures. Having zero say or even concern for how the City's political games play out, they are able to focus themselves wholly on the unclaimed lands beyond the City's borderwalls; rebuilding, repairing, and salvaging whatever they can get their hands on. The Coalition enjoys use of most of the latest developments in construction and repair technologies, owing to the fact that they are funded not only by most powers within the City, but most of the City's nominal allies. This funding allows them to hire swaths of Freelancers on a regular basis to clear and sweep dangerous zones so that Coalition crews can bring in their own people. Though progress is slow, the RRC's momentum has not shown any signs of losing momentum for the last two decades. The RRC is overseen by Director Jacqueline Reyd, a very serious and no-nonsense human in her late 120s, known and respected for her ability to accomplish tasks and organize details in a timely and efficient manner, and a habit of griping about modern fashions. Feared for her purse-swinging skills, as she is known to carry about twenty pounds worth of stuff in it and swings it as hard as a morning star. The symbol of office for the RRC is a hammer crossed with a wrench against a gold background. Ninshanto Entertainment Industries International Before NEI Int. came along, televised media entertainment in Paradise City- and across most nations for that matter- was generally of poor quality and organization. Collections of small agencies and family-owned stations churning out simple programs for TV and radio, bored nerds using the most basic technologies to make PNet sites. Then came a small company from the Ryengo Empire with great plans and stunning amounts of venture capital, and they built a sizeable multinational corporate empire. The NEI has significant influence and outright control of almost all broadcast media in Paradise City, not to mention their stakes in other countries. The NEI hires veritable legions of writers, artists, and musicians from all over Charybdis, on an endless march to develop the best entertainment for people of all ages and races, both mundane and extreme. Aside from effectively organizing and commercializing popular media, such as the Apocalypse Tower or Broken Nose Ball sporting events, the NEI possesses a small collection of profitable IPs which have yielded numerous shows and product lines, including such gems as Seisoumon, Faerie Tails, and Ryuusei Senshi. These brands have brought in wealth from across the worlds, providing the NEI the funds necessary to maintain operations and market their personal brands to the point of being nearly ubiquitous. As one might expect, they vigorously- sometimes viciously- defend their IPs, but there is a common misconception that they work to stifle their competition before it can get off the ground. To combat such claims, the Board of Directors funds several charities to assist potential competitors- citing that competition means creative stimulation, stimulation leads to new and profitable developments, profits are indicative of a successful economic system, and that only in such a harmonious environment can the company, the company's employees, their clientele, and all around them flourish. The Board has gone further to state that any threat to their visions of economic harmony and growth would and should be dealt with as swiftly and efficiently as possible, and on several occasions have made examples of saboteurs and terrorists to help cement their claims. NEI Int. is run by the Executive Board; a group of humans, halflings, kemono, and half-breeds from the Ryengo Empire. They are not necessarily a very secretive group, but they are very private as they have been subject to numerous attempts at corporate espionage and assassination- they tend to avoid the public eye and remain as anonymous as possible for the sake of avoiding trouble. The NEI has headquarters buildings in a half dozen nations, but the Board spends much of its time in Paradise City for the sake of being able to directly negotiate and lobby with national powers at the Grand Convocation. The company logo is an Eastern-style green dragon circling through a scaled picture of the Charybdis system, with the company name written along the dragon's scales. Universal Temple Inquisition The establishment of the Templum Primus has been a godsend for the Universal Temple; especially for the Inquisition. By stationing their headquarters in Paradise City they have declared themselves a similarly politically neutral entity- one that does not take sides in wars between nations, lending validity to their claims of existing only to protect from the unholy. The City has also proven to be the ideal training ground for new Inquisitors- a contract made with the Enforcers Guild sees many new recruits joining the Guild for a few years, providing the rookies with invaluable opportunities for combat experience before they are expected to officially take on the mantle of Inquisitor, giving them experience in working alongside secular law enforcement officials, and providing the Guild with regular if temporary reinforcements. But, there are drawbacks to such an arrangement. While the Temple is ostensibly on good terms with the various Pagan groups, more than a few are uncomfortable with the high concentration of Inquisitors- while there is little to no real fear of Inquisitors drawing faith and worship from their gods, the presence of a high grade holy warrior training school is something of a target. Some Pagan groups believe this is a good thing- many Valhallans suggest that it would be preferable that the forces of corruption be drawn to them instead of them being forced to go hunting, but less martial groups fear that the Inquisition will inevitably draw the same horrors that destroyed New Jerusalem down upon Paradise City. The oaths made by the Inquisition to fight any such corruptive influences to the last man have done little to allay these fears. At the current time, the Inquisition is headed by High Inquisitor Calvin Fontierre, a very charismatic but grim half-elf paladin; one of the few people to survive the destruction of New Jerusalem. Though getting on in years he has repeatedly proven- usually in defense of the City- that his mind is still sharp as a razor and his arms can still bear the weight of sword and shield. But unless there the storm of battle is brewing, Fontierre stays sequestered within Templum Primus at more or less all times. Having no friends nor family to bind him to the outside world he spends his time in study, prayer, discussion with his peers, and doing necessary managerial work for the Inquisition. The rare times he leaves Primus for any reason other than battle are generally formal appearances, such as speaking with Pagan church leaders and Enforcer officers or giving promotions to particularly successful Inquisitors. Supremacy Groups Despite the best efforts of untold thousands of hard-working individuals, racism remains a problem in Paradise City. Pretty much every race represented in Paradise City has at least one group that espouses their species' superiority over all others and insists on embarrassing their racial kin through acts of terrorism and sabotage detrimental to the whole of society in the name of racial purity, segregation, or flat out denigration. Most of these groups tend to work away from disapproving eyes, hiding in the shadows and working their talons into whatever cracks they can find. This is both a blessing and a curse, as it means that they do not often publically show themselves to stir up trouble, but it also means they do not make themselves easy targets. These organizations often spend years setting up various fronts for their clandestine activities, waiting for an opportune moment to strike at whatever targets they've picked. It's rare that any two groups use similar methods: some favor sabotage through legal manipulations, bribery, and blackmail. Others prefer more violent means of getting their ideologies across, such as random assassinations, kidnappings, or destruction of private property. Some hide behind religious ideologies to promote their beliefs, others prefer politics. It all depends on the individual group's beliefs and desires. Very few of these supremacist movements are publically known- and those that are, are very subtle with their works. The Underbelts, an old dwarvish family whose history dates back to well before the Armageddon Wars, hides its bigotry behind a veil of pride in dwarvish construction; specifically their family's contributions to reconstruction efforts and how they are superior to the works of any other race's architects. Their hatred of draconids is, at least publically, very subdued and well constructed to look less like open bigotry and more like an intense rivalry. The Ganjon Army- a group of disillusioned citybound and kampftier who've been led to believe that they are victimized by the other races and deserve recompense and special treatment- on the other hand operate through outright terroristic means, gathering whoever they can brainwash or otherwise convince to do their dirty work to kill as many of their perceived enemies as possible. And then there are the Terria Patriots, a human supremacy movement that blames every non-human race for the loss of so much of Telo-Haljr. The Patriots' preferred methods of bullying, blackmail, and the occasional murder are geared toward the development of human-only neighborhoods, forcing non-human families to move out- ideally into less safe areas- so that they can breed a better, stronger race and ultimately force all non-humans out of Paradise City. Gangers There's all sorts of little gangs spread throughout the Eden Bazaar and Yeaton Row. Most of these are little more than bands of like-minded people who grew up in the same general area, packs of friends and family who proclaim themselves protectors or owners of small neighborhoods and blocks in an effort to keep their homes safe or extort money. As with the supremacist groups, there's too many small gangs to be counted and catalogued or tracked. In most cases these are benign entities who don't really matter much in the overall City political or economic structure, few will ever acquire territory greater than one or two housing blocks in the Row. But there are always those with greater ambitions and dreams for the future. Charismatic individuals who reach past the usual boundaries and work to develop larger groups capable of claiming more territory in the hopes of creating a new faction worthy of note. Clever businessmen who will hire on local toughs and use them as grunts to build up new enterprises, legitimate or criminal. People who decide that they've had enough of being harassed by hostile groups or creatures and band together to form safety nets that extend beyond their homes. Souls with martyr-complexes who believe in a cause and whip those closest to them into a frenzy to accomplish specific goals for the benefit or detriment to the City. The causes are all different, but the effects are all the same: new groups rise and fall like the tides. Few of these groups ever make it big; most end up dying out after a generation or two when members become too old or disillusioned in their group's direction and drift away. Whether these gangers are helpful or harmful depends on what all is happening at the moment. Sometimes one of these tiny factions will succeed in protecting the City from a greater threat or manage to bring in a great deal of money that they invest into their communities to make life better. Others will self-destruct in a blaze of glory, fighting off some much larger and more powerful group, doing more harm than good to their homes as they fight to the last. Most are doomed to dissolvement, neither accomplishing anything worthy of great note nor getting involved in any actions that could be considered terribly destructive. Shen-Nan Triad Dating back to ancient Earth, the Triads have existed for thousands of years, changing as necessary for survival and continuing long traditions of criminal activity. There are too many instances to record where they have been nearly stamped out, only sheer luck and determination has allowed them to survive the long centuries. Originally hailing from the Ryengo Empire, the Triads were forced off Uwibami during a planet-wide crackdown on criminal groups before the Wars began. This forced them to hide in Telo-Haljr, where they gained considerable wealth and power by helping numerous factions during the Wars, selling weapons, slaves, and information to the highest bidders. As the Wars wound down they settled in and hid amongst the Haljran refugees, always hanging at the fringes of society to rebuild their criminal empire. The latest iteration of the Triads, the Shen-Nan, founded the black market in Paradise City and prospered. The biggest difference between the Shen-Nan and other previously criminal syndicates, such as the Montego Family and the Brethren of Rum and Blood, the Triad never bothered to become involved with anything legal; they chose and still choose to focus their operations on all the things that are wholly illegal. They are an active force of social and legal corruption whose efforts remain beyond control of the Enforcers Guild, which is just how they like things. Their primary focus since the development of the City has been the humanoid trafficking market; people always fetch a high price. Illegal drugs, professional murder-for-hire, and the sale of stolen merchandise is of course popular, but none of these compare to the amount of money that can be gained by selling people. This has allowed the Triad to carve itself a comfortable niche in Paradise City's underbelly, much to the aggravation of many Enforcer agents. Lately however, the Shen-Nan have shown signs of slow dissolution. Individual Tongs, smaller groups within the Triad, have been seeking to move away from their increasingly paranoid and oppressive elders. For some it's a matter of practicality- the Shen-Nan is almost exclusively humans due to the Triad's belief that too much 'outsider' blood could disrupt operations due to unfamiliarity and the potential for race-based mistrust, and that hampers their ability to bring in fresh blood. Other Tongs desire to take power for themselves, growing tired of doing things by traditional means and wishing to explore new and potentially more profitable methods and avenues. Such disagreements between groups has an unpleasant tendency to end messily; the Nine Elder Shadows, the leading subfaction, do not allow or accept much if indeed any disagreement from their subordinates, and should those beneath them try to break away then the only recourse is through swift and violent execution to provide an example for everyone else. This creates many problems for the Enforcers Guild. The Tongs are not collections of random thugs, but well prepared and organized criminals with high levels of training and high quality equipment. Some are almost paramilitary groups which fight to the death, others are cult-like groups of professional assassins that don't mind picking off Enforcer agents for sticking their noses where they aren't welcome. All of them are very dangerous people; and even if they might want to split up, an outside threat is liable to make them come together very quickly for the sake of mutual survival. Further issues lie in the Triad's expertise at hiding- nobody outside of the Tongs can say they've ever seen a single member of the Nine Elder Shadows, whose membership and hideaways are matters of pure speculation. Rumors abound that the Shadows hide somewhere deep below the City proper in heavily defended subterranean fortresses, which might lead to the ruins of pre-Human civilizations, or that they have an extraplanar palace somewhere in the Shadow Plane from whence they send forth orders, or that they don't even live in the City at all but still remain in Ryengo. Nobody even knows if there are actually nine of them or not. Aside from being a constant thorn in the Guild's side, the Triad often works to curry favor from other factions in Paradise City through whatever means they deem necessary- and not all of these efforts are unsuccessful. The Shen-Nan's control over the black market gives them more influence than anyone cares to admit, not just in politics or military prowess but in social influences as well. There aren't many civilians eager to speak out against the Triad, as that could draw repercussions against not only individuals but those individuals' families or friends. Even as infighting slowly increases and becomes more public, people are rarely willing to talk. Triad territory is generally marked with a sinister collection of tentacles branching outward in all directions- something that most Kelthid find horribly offensive. Doomwalkers Not all that the Aboleth guarded so closely on Scylla was for the sake of their own lust for power and dominance. Legends say that many of the sites they kept sealed under their deep swamps were evils far more terrible than themselves, horrors that made their own pale by comparison. One such horror is rumored to be a Dwimmerlaik- a demonic undead servant of the Elder Corruptions. Which Dwimmerlaik is unknown, some believe it to be the Tattered Grackle of Weltschmerz, or the Fifth Blazing Mirror of Perfection, maybe even the Onyx Worm Wrapped in Bitter Dusk. For the average person though it doesn't really matter which of these horrors it might be, or even if there really is one hiding in the forgotten depths deep below the surface. All that matters is what the rumors bring with them- the groups people have come to call the Doomwalkers. 'Doomwalker' is a term that has come to mean any cult which follows the doctrines and mandates of the Elder Corruptions, the most twisted of souls that work to tear the City down and drag it into utter damnation. They are not believed to possess much actual power, but the fact that they exist within the City's borders is bad enough. Such Heretics are at war with Paradise City for having the gall to survive without succumbing to their dark lords and ladies' wills. Whether they are powerful or not, their presence means an active force of decay and corruption feverishly working to tear the City apart from the inside out, by any means necessary. Certainly, the City's protectors will come down upon them with all the wrath they can muster, but that just gives them cause to hide even deeper, in places where few dare to tread. The cult believed to possess the most strength at the moment are the Children of Pestilence. The amount of unused space in the City, the innumerable forgotten corners where the sun has not shown in centuries, unmapped tunnel networks that lead kilometers below the surface; all ideal locations where the Khan's devoted followers can construct havens and temples dedicated to sickness and decay. It is said that they seek to dig to the deepest recesses hidden below the City, to ancient stratums so far below the surface that even the Aboleth barely knew of their existence, in the hopes of discovering lore and sources of dark powers even the most twisted aberrations feared too powerful to resist. Their efforts might even be being directed by the Dwimmerlaik, stories told by those few brave souls who dared the forgotten depths speak of insidious whispers encouraging them to acts of terrible depravity, and a sensation of being watched that never goes away. The Veteran's Association As time marches on, the list of those who give their lives in the service of protecting Paradise City grows ever longer. But not every valiant soul is so fortunate as to lose their life for the greater good- some are forced to endure fates that would, under normal circumstances, be worse than death. Occasionally a Freelancer, Enforcer, somebody, will become one of the Afflicted; individuals who have, in lieu of being slain, been forced to live with some manner of natural or supernatural curse which renders them incapable of returning to a life of normalcy. The list of such possible conditions is unfortunately long, but all such victims are brought under the same banner of the Veteran's Association. While other cultures may be content to kill, or banish, or otherwise torment those citizens and soldiers who become afflicted by incurable strains of stressful and often dangerous physiological conditions, the people of Paradise City often treat such individuals as heroes who have made an incredible sacrifice on their behalf, and go to considerable lengths to assist them in continuing their lives (or unlives as is sometimes the case) and remaining active members of their society. The founding members of the Veteran's Association were the surviving twenty or thirty members of the Earth Federation Marine Corp's Amphibious Assault Battalion Omega Twelve, better known as the Abbots. The men, women, and other of the Abbots were one of many battalions who volunteered to be injected with the Azlus Type-Epsilon Boost Serum; a biological agent that created the Rippers, intelligent non-magical undead. Having lost everything but each other and their commander, Mr. Cartwright, the only options that lay before the surviving Abbots were death, exile, or finding a means to continue protecting the children of the people they swore in life to protect. Though still suffering from severe post-traumatic stress disorder, which may manifest as sudden complete emotional breakdowns or outbursts of violently erratic behavior, teams of skilled parapsychologists and professional therapists have assisted the remaining Abbots in coping with their ordeals and shared horrors of intergalactic war to the point where they are capable of being functional members of Paradisian society. The Abbots enjoy treatment as unliving relics of a lost age- symbols of strength, tenacity, the spirit of Scylla itself, surviving and refusing to knuckle under. And as the living care for them, so too do the Abbots care for the living, employing their centuries of tactical and strategic military knowledge and prowess whenever the City needs defenders, and providing valuable training to newer generations of Enforcers. But Rippers alone are not the only ones cared for by the Association- all manner of cursed and physically tainted are seen to by professional caregivers. Individuals suffering from various strains of lycanthropic diseases, magical curses, and 'normal' undeath are likewise cared for by the Association, which helps them cope with the stresses of their new bodies and (un)lives so that they may continue to exist without fear of retribution for afflictions brought onto them through no fault of their own, and in so doing remain valued members of the Paradisian civilization. The Association provides all sorts of valuable media as sources for documentaries and historical information, which gives most of them some level of celebrity status. Answering only to Mr. Cartwright, they are often considered an offshoot branch of the Enforcers Guild. This perception is aided by how many of them were Enforcers, or Freelancers employed by them, as well as the group's badge. The Association's symbol is the Enforcer's shield with a withered hand holding up a pair of balanced scales. Back to Paradise City Back to Main Page